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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (April 28, 2018)
4 A ❘ SATURDAY EDITION ❘ APRIL 28, 2018 Siuslaw News P.O. Box 10 Florence, OR 97439 NED HICKSON , EDITOR Opinion ❘ 541-902-3520 ❘ NHICKSON @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM The First Amendment C ongress shall make no law respecting an estab- lishment of religion or prohibiting the free exer- cise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. “I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.” —Thomas Jefferson (1800) USPS# 497-660 Copyright 2017 © Siuslaw News Published every Wednesday and Saturday at 148 Maple St. in Florence, Lane County, Oregon. A member of the National Newspaper Association and Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association. Periodicals postage paid at Florence, Ore. Postmaster, send address changes to: Siuslaw News, P.O. Box 10, Florence, OR 97439; phone 541-997-3441; fax 541-997-7979. All press releases may be sent to PressReleases@TheSiuslawNews.com. Publisher, ext. 318 Editor, ext. 313 Consulting Editor 831-761-7353 Email: echalhoub@register-pajaronian.com Marketing Director, ext. 326 Office Supervisor, ext. 312 Production Supervisor Press Manager Jenna Bartlett Ned Hickson Erik Chalhoub Susan Gutierrez Cathy Dietz Ron Annis Jeremy Gentry DEADLINES: Wednesday Issue—General news, Monday noon; Budgets, four days prior to publication; Regular classified ads, Monday 1 p.m.; Display ads, Monday noon; Boxed and display classified ads, Friday 5 p.m. Saturday Issue—General news, Thursday noon; Budgets, two days prior to publication; Regular classifiedad,sThursday 1 p.m.; Display ads, Thursday noon; Boxed and display classified ads, Wednesday 5 p.m. Soundings, Tuesday 5 p.m. NEWSPAPER SUBSCRIPTION RATES: In Lane County — 1-year subscription, $76; 6-month in-county, $52; 10-weeks subscription, $23; Out of Lane County — 1-year subscription,$99; 6-month out-of-county, $65; 10-weeks subscription, $29; Out of State — 1- year subscription, $125; E-Edition Online Only (Anywhere) — 1-year subscription, $71. Mail subscription includes E-Edition. Website and E-Edition: TheSiuslawNews.com L ETTERS Child abuse prevention is everyone’s job, every day T he West Lane Regional Leadership Team for the 90 by 30 Child Abuse Prevention Project has spearheaded activities throughout the month of April to focus attention on the importance of taking action to prevent child abuse and neglect. This weekend religious groups in Florence, Mapleton, Swisshome and Deadwood will observe Blue Sunday tomor- row, April 29, as a part of Child Abuse Prevention Month. Blue Sunday was established in 1994 as a nation-wide oppor- tunity to raise awareness about child abuse, to pray for victims GUEST VIEWPOINT B Y S UZANNE M ANN -H ENTZ 90 BY 30 C HILD A BUSE P REVENTION P ROJECT of abuse and those who support them, and to address the needs of children who have experi- enced the adverse effects of domestic violence. In some communities, there are food and clothing donations campaigns, special service proj- ects, outings or parties and more. Everyone is invited to attend Sunday’s event in the Bromley Room of the Siuslaw Public Library from 2 to 4 p.m. tomor- row. Participants can watch videos, peruse informational displays about prevention strategies being implemented in our communities, engage in children’s activities and have refreshments. This is a free event, thanks to generous donations from Florence Rotary and individu- als. West Lane 90 by 30 wants to thank all the hosts of “Pinwheels for Prevention” gar- dens. They include: Florence Chamber of Commerce, City of Florence, C.R.O.W, Oregon Pacific Bank, Three Rivers Casino, Siuslaw Public Library, Mapleton Public Library, Deadwood Post Office, Swisshome Post Office, and the Mapleton and Siuslaw School Districts. Even though Child Abuse Prevention Month is over for this year, prevention is every- one’s job every day. For more information about Blue Sunday, visit www.blue sunday.org or www.90by30. com. LETTERS F ULL HOUSE FOR LESS FOOD WASTE On Thursday, April 25, several local groups brought us the Rockefeller Foundation movie about food waste, taking us around the world to see how waste food becomes beer, boutique fla- vored pork, replenished soils, generated energy— and most importantly, kept out of land fills. Some quotable takeaways included: “The average U.S. family wastes one third of the food it buys;’’ “It takes a head of lettuce 25 years to compost in a land fill that produces methane gas air pollution;” and “Add no meat or citrus waste!” was recommended for a ques- tion about how to compost food waste in Pacific Northwest’s bear and rat country. The free movie, “Wasted” at City Lights Cinemas, drew a full house audi- ence who were advised, cajoled, cussed and educated in several languages about how to make better choices, buy less and waste nothing. The local organizers had booths of information and collected food for Florence Food Share. Thank you for a great movie where everyone can learn something benefi- cial to help save our planet. —Jenny Velinty Florence W HY NO MORE OF J AY B OZIEVICH At a Lane County Commissioner meeting in 2017, my community of 90 homes near Mercer Lake petitioned the county to include our road under the county road system. I was present at the meeting. The outcome was not what we had hoped but, regardless of whether we won or lost our appeal, Mr. Bozievich showed what I felt was cal- lous disregard for our dilemma. He compared our situation of 1.5 miles of formerly county-maintained and approved road to his own house, and the short driveway he has to pay to repair and maintain. Though he is our representative, he was the most opposed of all the commissioners to our appeal. His response was “caveat emptor,” meaning “shame on you” as the new homeowner for not doing your home- work before buying a house. On the other hand, the commission- ers also stated that real estate agents and home sellers are not required to disclose if the roads leading to your home are maintained by the county, and no signs are posted to that effect. In fact, if the real estate agent incor- rectly states that the road is a county road, that is still the home buyer’s prob- lem. So shame on us — and shame on us if we elect someone who doesn’t really respect Florence. We need a better rep- resentative with fresh initiatives and ideas and the ability to negotiate com- promises with opposing interests, including environmental vs timber interests. Nora Kent is not simply a “no more Bozievich” vote. She provides a fresh approach, a refreshing change. —Linda Watts Florence B E CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR The guest opinion piece “Unintended Consequences” (April 25) is exactly correct. An unintended consequence of the 1996 UK firearm regulation is that in over 60 percent of UK home robberies, the victim is home vs. 14 percent in the US. The increased UK knife regulations further emboldened the criminals as the homeowner may now be prosecuted for defending his property. The criminals prefer occupied residences as the vic- tims willingly hand over their valuables to rid themselves of the intruders. It has recently come to light that the U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) did a Defensive Firearm Use (DFU) study in the mid-1990s to refute Gary Kleck’s 1993 study that approximated 2.2 million DFUs occurred annually in the U.S. Note that DFU does not mean a firearm was discharged, merely that one was present. The rigorous multi-year CDC study indicated more like 2.5 mil- lion DFUs annually. Extrapolating those numbers for population increase, number of firearms in circulation and decrease in US violence gives a 22 year total of between 60 and 70 million crimes prevented. While anti-firearm activists may not like to admit it, they benefit from crim- inals not knowing if their target is armed and thus prefer unoccupied premises. Truly committed firearm banners should post signs indicating their homes are firearm free and thus reciprocate the protection they obtain gratis. Yet another example of an unintend- ed consequence is the DEA’s crack- down on opioid production in 2011. Up until that time, U.S. opioid deaths were increasing at about 60 percent of the prescription rate increase. After the ban, opioid deaths began to increase expo- nentially. Synthetic opioid deaths are increas- ing at an even steep rate and almost doubling every year. My Gramps opined, “Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.” —Ian Eales Florence TO THE P OLICY E DITOR The Siuslaw News welcomes letters to the editor as part of a community discussion of issues on the local, state and national level. Emailed letters are preferred. Handwritten or typed letters must be signed. All letters need to include full name, address and phone number; only name and city will be printed. Letters should be limited to about 300 words. Letters are subject to editing for length, grammar and clarity. Publication of any letter is not guaranteed and depends on space available and the volume of letters received. Letters that are anonymous, libelous, argumen- tative, sarcastic or contain accusations that are unsourced or documented will not be published. Letters containing poetry or from outside the Siuslaw News readership area will only be pub- lished at the discretion of the editor. P OLITICAL /E LECTION L ETTERS : Election-related letters must address pertinent or timely issues of interest to our readers at-large. Letters must 1) Not be a part of letter-writing campaigns on behalf of (or by) candidates; 2) Ensure any information about a candidate is accu- rate, fair and not from second-hand knowledge or hearsay; and 3) explain the reasons to support candidates based on personal experience and per- spective rather than partisanship and campaign- style rhetoric. Candidates themselves may not use the letters to the editor column to outline their views and plat- forms or to ask for votes; this constitutes paid polit- ical advertising. As with all letters and advertising content, the newspaper, at the sole discretion of the publisher, general manager and editor, reserves the right to reject any letter that doesn’t follow the above crite- ria. Send letters to: nhickson@thesiuslawnews.com WHERE TO WRITE Pres. Donald Trump The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW Washington, D.C. 20500 Comments: 202-456-1111 Switchboard: 202-456-1414 FAX: 202-456-2461 TTY/TDD Comments: 202-456-6213 www.whitehouse.gov Gov. Kate Brown 160 State Capitol 900 Court St. Salem, Ore. 97301-4047 Governor’s Citizens’ Rep. Message Line: 503-378-4582 www.oregon.gov/gov U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden 221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg Washington, DC 20510 202-224-5244 541-431-0229 www.wyden.senate.gov U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley 313 Hart Senate Office Bldg Washington, DC 20510 202-224-3753/FAX: 202- 228-3997 541-465-6750 www.merkley.senate.gov U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio ( 4 th Dist.) 2134 Rayburn HOB Washington, DC 20515 202-225-6416 541-269-2609 541-465-6732 www.defazio.house.gov State Sen. Arnie Roblan ( Dist. 5 ) 900 Court St. NE - S-417 Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1705 FAX: 503-986-1080 Email: Sen.ArnieRoblan@ oregonlegislature.gov State Rep. Caddy McKeown ( Dist. 9 ) 900 Court St. NE Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1409 Email: rep.caddymckeown @state.or.us West Lane County Commissioner Jay Bozievich 125 E. Eighth St. Eugene, OR 97401 541-682-4203 FAX: 541-682-4616 Email: Jay.Bozievich@ co.lane.or.us
